My wedding dress is done!

7.21.2011

It feels so weird saying that! My wedding dress has been a design on paper and then a semi-permanent fixture on a mannequin in my mom's sewing room for so long that it's weird that it could be real and finished! My mom and I finished it last weekend.

Of course, it's been a magical, faceless perfect confection of beauty and romance for even longer in the depths of my brain, that it's hard to realize it's a real thing now. I always wanted THE wedding dress, the ultimate perfect dress that expressed who I am and how cool and unique and beautiful my wedding will be. It's hard to accept that, though I am so excited to be getting married (in just over two weeks!), finally having the day I've been waiting for means the dress isn't perfect anymore since it's no longer a fantasy. Now it's real and as with most real things, it's not 100% perfect.

There's nothing wrong with it; that's not what I mean. But the fun/challenge of creating it myself means that I didn't know what it was going to look like when it's done so I couldn't predict or choose the outcome completely. And it's been 80-90% done for a while so I thought I knew about what it would look like, but always imagined that when it was DONE it would look... somehow better than the sum of its parts.

Am I making sense? Did/do you have super high expectations for a wedding dress, too, and were yours satisfied?

I'm being too negative. Enough with the rant. Here's another little preview.

Dunno why the lighting is so blue. It's all a dreamm... whooosoosshooo...woooo.... No, I dunno.

It doesn't look that impressive hanging on the hanger so you'll have to wait till you see pics of ME in it to see the full thing on a human shape. Not for secrecy or anything, really; I mean, you'll probably be a little surprised when you see the pics even though you've seen construction up to this point. It's hanging in our living room right now so my fiancé has seen it, although not on me all done up, and my mom would show it to anyone who came over when it was on the mannequin in her sewing room, so a fair chunk of the wedding guests know what I'll be wearing.

I guess I figure the rest of the wedding will be a surprise. Trust me, it will. We have all kinds of unorthodox tricks up our sleeves, Jason and I, and I hope my dress will be just one of the memorable and unique pieces of the day. Two-and-a-little-bit weeks from now!! Aaaah, so excited!

When I sewed my wedding dress it wasn't like anything else I had seen or tried on. I actually had a mini freak out that I wasn't going to like it or it would not be flattering on my body. It all turned out fantastic however, I still had some anxiety.

I'm so excited for you! I've really enjoyed seeing your process, and while it might not live up to the original vision you had in mind, it was a seriously beautiful thing to watch you and your Mom put so many hours and so much love into it! I know you are going to look splendid!

Congratulations on finishing your dress. When I did my sister's wedding dress it didn't hit me how perfect it was until I saw her coming down the aisle. She was so beautiful in it. She is what made it perfect and I'm sure it will be the same for you.

I almost did not have a dress at all, that's how high my expectations were of my dream wedding dress. In the end, I knew I would never find what I wanted without making it, but I settled for a dress that I believe worked out better than I could have imagined, if that make sense. Sometimes, all the pieces just fall together, no matter the circumstances or how much you plan. In the end, it all works out! Congrats!

I think it's completely normal to feel like the dress doesn't measure up to your dreams. I felt the same way after buying my dress, but on the day and even now I think it was the best dress for me and love seeing pictures of it. Good luck with getting everything set for the wedding!

I am an intern with a wedding video company called Storymix Media. We recently ran a contest on our Facebook with HUGE success, so we decided to do it again! Only this time it's especially for brides-to-be who are blogging wedding bliss! BUT we are limiting it to 30 bloggers so time is of the essence!

I tried sending you an email but it bounced back. If you're interested in learning about the contest (A Free Wedding Video and $250 gift card is the prize!) please email me at caitlin@storymixmedia.com.

Hi,a friend and i made my wedding dress (well i designed it and she made it because i wanted to enjoy it being made by someone else), there was nothing wrong with it, she made it look pretty much exactly how i said i wanted it but when it was done i thought "oh, this doesn't look at all magical as i had hoped". now, my dress was very simple so its not like it had the wow factor going for it but i was hoping for it to be subtly impressive but when i saw it it was just a dress, not my WEDDING DRESS! i was disappointed it was done because i knew it couldnt get any better than than how it was then

but, what i would say to you is, trust your instincts...your dress probably has all the elements you wanted right? everything you need from it is there and once you put it on and wear it amongst the rest of your wedding which you have designed it will become your ultimate wedding dress.

anyway we had a fair bit of DIY stuff at our wedding, we were 19 when we got married 5 months ago, so very little money and a guest list of about 200...feel free to check out the photos if your interested

Congratulations on completing your Wedding dress!!! I started following your blog about right at when you started your dress. It's been so fun to see what you have created and I'm very much looking forward to see you on your wedding day. Thanks for sharing!

the dress i picked was way out of my price range, so my aunt offered to make it for me. i was involved every single step of the way--every applique placement, every stitch. unfortunately, by the time the wedding rolled around i was over it. there were little things that didn't come out exactly the way i wanted, the overall look wasn't quite what i was after...and i just had too much to do with it. seeing it so much kind of took the fun out of it, if that makes any sense. of course, there was no other option--so i wore it.now, with the benefit of 13 years past, i can see that it was a beautiful dress, and it looked lovely. but i still would never do it again (NOT that i'm planning on doing it again! wink, wink!) because it still wasn't really what i wanted. i followed your dressmaking every step of the way...curious to see how your experience went. i didn't want to comment before, but now it's all said and done so i feel free to share my experience.i hate for it to sound negative, because it wasn't completely, but it sounds a lot like what you're saying about your dress. anyway, i can't wait to see the pics of you in all your glory!